Sameera Fazili and Mary Beth Maxwell join Equitable Growth’s Board of Directors
New board members will help guide the organization’s efforts to study the connection between inequality and growth
CONTACT:
Katie Wilcoxson, kwilcoxson@equitablegrowth.org
WASHINGTON – The Washington Center for Equitable Growth today announced the addition of two new members to its board of directors: Sameera Fazili, former deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the National Economic Council, and Mary Beth Maxwell, executive director of Workshop.
Equitable Growth’s Board of Directors also includes former senior policymakers, business executives, and philanthropic leaders. Fazili and Maxwell will join Steve Daetz, president of the Sandler Foundation; Byron Auguste, CEO and co-founder of Opportunity@Work, and former deputy director of the National Economic Council in the Obama administration; and Ira Fishman, COO and managing director of the NFL Players Association.
“We are thrilled to welcome Sameera and Mary Beth to our Board of Directors,” said Daetz, Equitable Growth’s board chair. “Their extensive experience across government, academia, and advocacy make them well positioned to guide the organization as it provides policymakers with actionable, research-driven ideas and proposals to foster strong, stable, and broadly shared growth.”
Sameera Fazili has more than 20 years of experience in policy development, program execution, and crisis management across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. She was the deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the National Economic Council in 2021–2022, where she led the Biden administration’s work on industrial policy, supply chains, and regional economic development. Fazili also held roles as a senior researcher and as director of engagement for the Community and Economic Development Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and served in the Obama administration as senior policy advisor at the National Economic Council and senior advisor to the Under Secretary of International Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Before her time in government, she was a clinical lecturer at Yale Law School’s community and economic development clinic. Fazili earned an A.B. in social studies from Harvard University and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
“In the 10 years since its founding, Equitable Growth has been successful in building the economic evidence for how inequality affects growth—and shifting the status quo on how policymakers can address economic inequality,” said Fazili. “I am excited to work with my fellow board members, Equitable Growth’s staff, and its extensive academic network to facilitate stronger connections between academics and policymakers to strengthen the competitiveness of the U.S. economy and improve economic outcomes for workers, families, and communities.”
Mary Beth Maxwell is the executive director of Workshop, a start-up catalyzing change for workers, and was most recently special advisor for worker power and economic justice at Open Society Foundations. She previously worked in the U.S. Department of Labor in the Obama administration, where she held a number of roles, including principal deputy assistant secretary for policy, deputy chief of staff and acting deputy administrator of the Wage and Hour Division. Maxwell has spent nearly two decades in non-profit advocacy. She was the founder and executive director of American Rights at Work, a policy think tank advocating for labor law reform; national field director at Jobs with Justice; and deputy field director for NARAL Pro-Choice America.
“The COVID-19 recession may be behind us, but economic inequality and austerity remain looming threats to our economic growth and prosperity,” said Maxwell. “Equitable Growth has established itself as a leader in seeding timely, innovative research. I look forward to helping shape the economic policies of tomorrow with real evidence on the challenges that workers, their families, and our economy at-large are facing today.”
Learn more about Equitable Growth’s Board of Directors.
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The Washington Center for Equitable Growth is a nonprofit research and grantmaking organization dedicated to advancing evidence-backed ideas and policies that promote strong, stable, and broad-based economic growth. For more information, see www.equitablegrowth.org and follow us on Twitter and Facebook @equitablegrowth.
